Eternal September
(historic Internet, 1993 on)

The first I remember for me is qb30087 - Bitnet - calstate, based on access to a timeshared CDC Cyber system in ?Long Beach. It was online, so don't remember lots of details, but occurred when I started working on my Masters degree at SDSU in 1979-81. Timeline of Technology (and Stewart's Life). This old webpage suggests

What does "Eternal September" refer to on the Internet?

"Eternal September or the September that never ended was a cultural phenomenon during a period beginning around late 1993 and early 1994, when Internet service providers began offering Usenet access to many new users.[1][2] Prior to this, the only sudden changes in the volume of new users of Usenet occurred each September, when cohorts of university students would gain access to it for the first time. The periodic flood of new users overwhelmed the existing culture for online forums and the ability to enforce existing norms. AOL began their Usenet gateway service in March 1994, leading to a constant stream of new users.[3] Hence, from the early Usenet hobbyist point of view, the influx of new users that began in September 1993 appeared to be endless." Wikipedia

[1] Eric Raymond. "September that never ended". The Jargon File (version 4.4.7). Archived from the original on September 14, 2008.
[2] Grossman, Wendy M. (1997). "The Year September Never Ended". Net.wars. New York University Press. pp. 4–17, 31–41. ISBN 978-0-8147-3103-1. OCLC 37451759. Archived from the original on June 26, 2006.

ARPAnet, WikiP

"The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. The ARPANET was established by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense.[1]
Building on the ideas of J. C. R. Licklider, Bob Taylor initiated the ARPANET project in 1966 to enable resource sharing between remote computers.[2] Taylor appointed Larry Roberts as program manager. Roberts made the key decisions about the request for proposal to build the network.[3] He incorporated Donald Davies' concepts and designs for packet switching,[4][5] and sought input from Paul Baran on dynamic routing.[6] In 1969, ARPA awarded the contract to build the Interface Message Processors (IMPs) for the network to Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN).[7][8] The design was led by Bob Kahn who developed the first protocol for the network. Roberts engaged Leonard Kleinrock at UCLA to develop mathematical methods for analyzing the packet network technology.[6]
Refs
[1] "ARPANET - The First Internet". Living Internet. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
[2] "An Internet Pioneer Ponders the Next Revolution". The New York Times. 20 December 1999. Retrieved 20 February 2020. Mr. Taylor wrote a white paper in 1968, a year before the network was created, with another ARPA research director, J. C. R. Licklider. The paper, "The Computer as a Communications Device," was one of the first clear statements about the potential of a computer network.
[3] Hafner, Katie (30 December 2018). "Lawrence Roberts, Who Helped Design Internet's Precursor, Dies at 81". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 February 2020. He decided to use packet switching as the underlying technology of the Arpanet; it remains central to the function of the internet. And it was Dr. Roberts's decision to build a network that distributed control of the network across multiple computers. Distributed networking remains another foundation of today's internet.
[4] "Computer Pioneers - Donald W. Davies". IEEE Computer Society. Retrieved 20 February 2020. In 1965, Davies pioneered new concepts for computer communications in a form to which he gave the name "packet switching." ... The design of the ARPA network (ArpaNet) was entirely changed to adopt this technique.
[5] "A Flaw In The Design". The Washington Post. 30 May 2015. The Internet was born of a big idea: Messages could be chopped into chunks, sent through a network in a series of transmissions, then reassembled by destination computers quickly and efficiently. Historians credit seminal insights to Welsh scientist Donald W. Davies and American engineer Paul Baran. ... The most important institutional force ... was the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) ... as ARPA began work on a groundbreaking computer network, the agency recruited scientists affiliated with the nation's top universities.
[6] Abbate, Janet (2000). Inventing the Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 39, 57–58. ISBN 978-0-2625-1115-5. Baran proposed a "distributed adaptive message-block network" [in the early 1960s] ... Roberts recruited Baran to advise the ARPANET planning group on distributed communications and packet switching. ... Roberts awarded a contract to Leonard Kleinrock of UCLA to create theoretical models of the network and to analyze its actual performance.
[7] "A Brief History of the Internet". Internet Society. Retrieved 25 May 2024.

Kris and the Internet - 1979 - 2023

I earned my Masters Degree in Computer Science at San Diego State University, SDSU, in 1979. SDSU had an IBM 360 on campus using punch cards for input in 1977, but transitioned to a timeshare system, the CalState CDC Cyber 173 by 1978. My next professional position was Math Programmer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, in Pasadena, CA, 1979-81. One colleague of mine actually had a login on the ARPANet, WikiP, then. This gave Ed Ng (Esmond G. Ng) major "bragging rights" in my eyes. At Jpl we had "internal" messages, but relied on entities like NETLIB & NADigest, to host us for email addresses and sharing thoughts in the Numerical Analysis community
1984 I was hired as Asst Prof Numerical Analysis at SDSU. I learned of NSF's plans to open the San Diego Supercomputer Center,SDSC, in 1985 and attended SDSC's first summer institute in 1986, successfully applied for time on the Cray, which was used to produce some of the data published in my UNM dissertation. In 1992 I was appointed to represent to SDSU on the SDSC Steering Committee with quarterly meeting to keep up to date on activities in High Performance Computing and networking.
SDSC NPACI Archives 1995-2003
SDSC records OAC Online Archive of CA
PBS Nerds 2.0.1 - A Brief History of the Internet - Part1; Part2; Part3
IEEE CS Timeline of Computing History, pdf w nifty images; jpeg/capture; txt

CS net 1981 on Wikipedia

"The Computer Science Network (CSNET) was a computer network that began operation in 1981 in the United States.[1] Its purpose was to extend networking benefits, for computer science departments at academic and research institutions that could not be directly connected to ARPANET, due to funding or authorization limitations. It played a significant role in spreading awareness of, and access to, national networking and was a major milestone on the path to development of the global Internet. CSNET was funded by the National Science Foundation for an initial three-year period from 1981 to 1984.
[1] "The Internet-From Modest Beginnings". NSF website. Archived from the original on 2016-10-07. Retrieved September 30, 2011.

National Science Foundation Network (1985-95), Wikipedia

The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States.[1] The program created several nationwide backbone computer networks in support of these initiatives. It was created to link researchers to the NSF-funded supercomputing centers. Later, with additional public funding and also with private industry partnerships, the network developed into a major part of the Internet backbone.
The National Science Foundation permitted only government agencies and universities to use the network until 1989 when the first commercial Internet service provider emerged. By 1991, the NSF removed access restrictions and the commercial ISP business grew rapidly.[2]
Refs
[1] NSFNET: The Partnership That Changed The World, Web site for an event held to celebrate the NSFNET, November 2007
[2] Schuster, Jenna (June 10, 2016). "A brief history of internet service providers". Archived from the original on 2019-04-28. Retrieved January 15, 2020.

Network maps over time w bandwidth

High Performance Computing Act of 1991 Wikip, also called The Gore Act

The High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (HPCA) is an Act of Congress promulgated in the 102nd United States Congress as (Pub.L. 102–194) on December 9, 1991. Often referred to as the Gore Bill,[1] it was created and introduced by then Senator Al Gore, and led to the development of the National Information Infrastructure, the funding of the National Research and Education Network (NREN), and the High-Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCC).[1][2][3][4]
The funding allocation was approximately $600 million.[5]

Background
The act built on prior U.S. efforts of developing a national networking infrastructure, starting with the technological foundation of the ARPANET in the 1960s and continuing through the funding of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet) in the 1980s. The renewed effort became known in popular language as building the Information superhighway.[2][6] It also included the High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative and spurred many significant technological developments, such as the Mosaic web browser,[7] and the creation of a high-speed fiber optic computer network.
[1] Computer History Museum – Exhibits – Internet History – 1990s
[2] Information Superhighway Envisioned-Legislation Pending to Establish National Computer Network Archived 2006-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
[3] NREN | Technology Resources
[4] The Federal HPCC Program, HPCC program flier, (April 1996)
[5] "Al Gore | Internet Hall of Fame". internethalloffame.org. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
[6] "FCLJ Vol 46, No. 3 – Blake and Tiedrich". Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
[7] NCSA Mosaic – September 10, 1993 Demo

https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-bill/272 High-Performance Computing Act of 1991